Olympus eyeing 10% Indian digital camera market in first yr

Mumbai: Olympus, the newest entrant in the highly competitive digital imaging space, is targeting to gain a 10% market share in the first year of its operations in India by selling 3 lakh units of digital cameras.

“We are targeting to sell 300,000 units across various categories by March 2012,” the company’s managing director for India, Toshio Murai told PTI here.

The Indian digital camera market stood at 2.4 million units in FY 11 which is expected to grow to 3 million by FY 12, he said, announcing the company’s intentions of grabbing a 10% share of the total pie in its very first year of operations in India.

Entrenched players in the space include a slew of fellow Japan-headquartered firms such as Sony, Canon, Nikon, Kodak and Fujifilm.

Olympus, which has entered the market with offerings in all the categories—consumer, prosumer, mirrorless and SLRs—will be building on developing its sales and service network in the first year of operation, its deputy general manager Bishwarup Mallick said.

“We do not have any master service centre of our own. It will come up soon and will help in the overall sales as well,” he said. The company will be initially selling cameras made in China and Vietnam.

A company spokeswoman said Olympus started its India operations as a wholly owned subsidiary in April this year itself and its overall employee strength in the country stands at 35.

Murai refused to give any details on the investments which the firm plans to make in the market or their marketing budget for India.